And the Texas Monthly 2014 Bum Steer Award goes to ...

And the Texas Monthly 2014 Bum Steer Award goes to ...

For fans of Texas culture, politics, sports and, well, the Lone Star State in general, today is a big day. This morning, Texas Monthly announced the nominees for the 2014 Bum Steer Awards. While we have to wait until next week to read the full report, TM did announce that 2013 was the "fourth-bum-steeriest year in Texas history."

So, who was named the Bum Steer(s) of the year?

Texas Monthly's steertisticians (using undoubtedly highly scientific methods) homed in on Houston for 2014, lauding the Astros, the Texans and Lt. Gov. David "unruly mob" Dewhurst with a very special triple Bum Steer Award.

The national magazine of Texas notes that the winners were selected because of the "unfathomably horrible baseball team, a phenomenally bad football team [and] a lieutenant governor prone to embarrassing moments on the telephone."

(While he doesn't have an official share in this year's awards, Ted Cruz did receive an honorable mention for being "prone to shutting down the federal government while reading nursery rhymes from the dais.")

Though the awards were announced mere hours ago, Texas Monthly is already getting flak for its January 2014 cover depicting, as the HoustonChronicle points out, "the Astros' 2012 brick pinstriped uniform, not the orange-and-blue uniform design that debuted for the 2013 season."

Not to be outdone, the Bum Steer staff also gave kudos to Dallas for its bad behavior this year. The magazine says that while the city usually has Jerry Jones to blame for its Bum Steer kudos, this year Dallasites had no one to blame but themselves.

Here in Austin, we remain (for now) unscathed. Looks like Romeo Rose wasn't enough to get us on the short list. Phew.

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The January 2014 Bum Steer edition of Texas Monthly hits newsstands next week.